Romanian socialists quit coalition government [fr]

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The move underscores souring relations between the PSD and the ruling centre-right Democratic Liberal party (PDL), who are gearing up for a bitter fight ahead of next month's presidential poll. 

According to the Romanian press, Prime Minister Emil Boc will nominate ministers from his party and will try to run a minority government until the presidential elections on 22 November. Early elections could take place after the presidential poll, analysts said. 

Prime Minister Boc, a leading PDL figure, ousted the PSD-affiliated interior minister Dan Nica after the latter suggested the November presidential elections would be fraught with vote-buying. 

Incumbent President Traian Basescu, whose power base is PDL, is widely expected to run for re-election. The comments by Nica implied that PDL was preparing massive fraud to get Basescu re-elected. 

Although legally considered a crime, vote-buying is commonplace in the EU's latest members, Romania and Bulgaria. The European Commission is taking a close look at developments there, including political fraud, through the so-called cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM) put in place to assist both countries since their 2007 accession. 

PSD leader Mircea Geoana, who is also expected to run for president, blamed President Basescu for the development. 

"Traian Basescu succeeded again in doing what he has been doing over the last five years – to provoke a political crisis to accompany the economic crisis. He is the main one to blame," Geoana said. 

Nica made a statement saying he had never accepted that theft and corruption should be the image of his country. "I tried to stop fraud and theft, and you can see what I got: I was fired," he stated. 

The centre-left group in the European Parliament expressed support for the PSD. 

"It is normal that PSD resigns from government," said Austrian MEP Hannes Swoboda, vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats group in the EU assembly. He added that in any country, if the prime minister were to sack a minister, the affected coalition partner would leave the government. 

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